This silent 8mm short opens with a low rent but surprisingly large scale and briskly edited recreation assault on the Roman held town of Camulodunum (now Colchester) led by Boadicea, then skips back in time (at least I think it does) to show her being romanced by Prasutagus, king of the Iceni tribe, before bearing the first of her two daughters and (maybe) taking her own life by swimming out to sea (as far as I'm aware, whether she died from illness or poisoning is still a matter of conjecture). But it's very interesting to compare it with the completed 2007 version, because aside from having the same source script they're otherwise completely different - actors, locations, visual treatment, you name it. Good-looking 21-year-old Paul (Russell Hall) hires a holiday apartment in Greece and starts a friendship with his older married landlady Gill (Carol Aston), one that quickly develops into something more. That may be a little misleading, as while Skare is well served, especially the remake, all Roxi gets is a single DVD cover.

As someone who made his own 8mm movies and spent years viewing and grading media student videos, I recognised many of the giveaway traits with a fond smile: the amateur actors who struggle to emote and pronounce every word as if attending an elocution class instead of speaking the way they would in real life; the pauses that bookend every line of dialogue and make scenes feel like assembly edits; sharp weapons like swords or knives that are slowly inserted rather than thrust into victims; unchoreographed fights whose participants go out of their way to avoid hurting themselves or each other. Murphy is back to his preferred theatrical script layout for this one, which is spread over 66 pages and includes some hard to read handwritten notes. Alternative opening titles and closing credits for the film whose pixelated look suggests that they were created digitally for the film's first DVD release.He later has a dig at this good natured criticism when he says, "I must stop poking fun at this," largely because he doesn't want to belittle the work that others put into it. Fireworks stand in for volcanos, and the sword used for the beheading was clearly constructed by covering the blade of a plastic weapon with tinfoil. This is more like it, a trailer that captures the essence of the film, makes the drama and characters look interesting, and it chooses a choice line to sign off with. When she takes her grandmother out for some air one day and stops to smell some flowers, granny lashes out at her with her cane, in the process overbalancing her wheelchair and tumbling down a steep hill to her death. I admire Murphy's ambition here, but a story such as this to really work it needs to have a sharp script, convincing and ideally naturalistic performances, and characters that you really bond with, and (slowly and nervously sucks air through his teeth) for me Stay had none of those things.

picture to fit a 16:9 frame, which there was no reason to preserve for posterity), we decided that the best option was to add the same glowing eyes to the 1080p master and give the viewer the upfront option to watch the film with or without them.I have little doubt that the do-it-on-the-cheap nature of Murphy's early works will make them easy targets for mockery for some, particularly those who have grown up in the digital age. The Last Night gets off to an old trope of a start when the manager of a small provincial theatre arrives upstairs just too late to hear a radio announcement that two armed and dangerous criminals have escaped from Broadmoor prison top security wing and are on the loose. A promotional trailer for Bloodstream created by Sarcophilous Films in 2008 for a planned DVD release that never materialised due to the company folding.

By the time I reached the end I found myself wistfully wishing that I had been, as what comes across in spades here is just how much Murphy loved making movies, and it's clear that his unwavering and cheerful enthusiasm drew others to him and infused them with the same level of drive and commitment. When you play this film, you can elect to watch it either with its original title, Quälen, or with the alternative The Hereafter title sequence, which appeared on the American VHS edition published by Mogel Video.But it's got to the point where horror is sometimes so over-analysed now that it's given a free pass in areas where films of similar quality from other genres would be roundly slammed, and has as result has become a literal definition of cult cinema. There's a lack of musical consistency to a score sometimes feels like a mixtape of tunes, but the repeated use of one piece built around a pulsing bass synthesiser note is rather effective. Shirley, meanwhile, has similar doubts about Oliver and Debbie, whom she learns are involved in an incestuous relationship. Boasting all-new 2K restorations from archival 16mm and 8mm elements, as well as a number of new digital captures from Murphy’s personal tape masters, this extensive retrospective of the obsessive auteur’s work is bolstered by a wealth of bonus features, including surviving fragments from lost films, and a 120-page book, all of which provides the definitive account of the weird and wonderful worlds of Britain’s great unheralded DIY filmmaker.